A ‘Sansdemic’ Is On the Horizon
March 1, 2022
A prerequisite for a high-quality workforce is people. To upskill employees, attract remote workers, or fill a skill gap through a community college program, you first need people. That may be rather obvious, but talent attraction and retention efforts have been built on the assumption that when it comes to people, the harvest will always be plentiful. But what happens if the supply of people to attract to, or retain in, a community isn’t increasing? Or what if it’s decreasing?
In The Demographic Drought, Emsi Burning Glass raised the alarm bells about the pending sansdemic (sans-without, demic-people). Due to an increase in baby boomers retiring, a continual decline in prime-age male labor force participation, and decades of low birth rates, in the coming years the U.S. (and much of the world) simply won’t have enough people for all the work that needs to be done.